Define the slice.
One change. A visible result. Enough room to finish it properly.
“Improve the settings page” can expand forever. Give your coding assistant a single behavior to change, the boundary it must respect, and a result you can observe. A slice should be small enough to review without reconstructing the whole project.
Write the behavior.
Describe what someone does and what should happen next. Include the current failure when there is one. Prefer a concrete interaction over an implementation suggestion; the existing code may already contain a better place to make the change.
When a user saves a blank display name,
keep the previous name and show a validation message.Draw the edge.
Name the route, input, or function involved. State which nearby behavior should remain stable. Let the assistant inspect the relevant code before it proposes an edit, and move unrelated discoveries into a separate note.
- Change: blank-name validation.
- Preserve: valid names and the existing save flow.
- Defer: profile redesign and unrelated field cleanup.
Choose the finish condition.
Select a failing example and a nearby valid example. Agree on the check before implementation so the goal cannot quietly move to match the patch. If the assistant discovers a deeper dependency, pause to resize the task instead of growing it unnoticed.
Before moving on